The Story of How I Decided on My Third Child's Name in 5 Seconds

My third child (my first daughter), who was born in February, is just so cute.


She's over 9 months old now, and her tiny front teeth that have started to sprout are adorable. The way she turns around and raises her hand with a smile is cute. It's the best when she claps her hands or tries to mimic talking.

Everything she does is so cute that the men in our house are in an uproar every day, claiming she looked at them and smiled, or that she tried to copy them.

Oh my goodness—
Someone stop me, my child is just too cute!!!!

By the way, unlike her older brothers, our little princess didn't have a name when she was born.

Not just at birth, but even after one day, and then three days, it still wasn't decided. This was a huge problem because during the newborn phase, you have so many opportunities to call out their name and shower them with love.


Just like when we named our previous two children, we tried to find a compromise by suggesting candidates to each other, but we just couldn't settle on one.

I don't mean to be rude, but the names my husband suggested were justsuper lame.

Of course, there's no such thing as a lame name. Every name is filled with love and meaning, so it's purely a matter of taste. However, he kept eagerly suggesting names that were either too familiar or reminded me of people I knew.
(Conversely, from my husband's perspective, the names I suggested were probably too eccentric and hard to accept.)

Husband, just think about it. Our last name is already "Otsuka." If you attach his suggested names to that, we might end up in a situation where seven people turn around just by calling her name at the hospital.

If someone said on a flight, "Is there an Otsuka [Name] among the passengers?", and we had "It's me!", "It's me too!", "Um... it's me as well...", "Oh... me too..." and they all came shuffling out...

This is bad.
Isn't there some kind of good compromise?

The days of suggesting names were grueling. Every single day, awake or asleep, I thought about the child's name, back and forth.

Naming a child involves a surprisingly wide range of considerations. The sound, the meaning, the resonance, the look, how it goes with the surname, name divination if you care about that, the meaning of the kanji, the impression in other countries, ease of calling, nicknames, and how it goes with the names of the older siblings...

There's the risk of overlapping with acquaintances, or thinking, "Oh, they used that for their friend's kid," and it even extends to the entertainment world, sports, movies, and anime. There's also the "that's my ex-boyfriend's (or ex-girlfriend's) name!" factor, so it's all very complicated.
※Of course, choosing the same name on purpose is also fine. This is just for our family.

Even though we came up with candidates, honestly, none of them were the winning choice.
My husband and I both thought each other's suggestions were lackluster, and it didn't feel like we would ever decide.

Oh my—how does everyone else decide on a name?

Oh my—I can't... I can't fight this anymore...

While all this was happening, the child was born.
She still had no name.

.........How about Soseki? Otsuka Soseki. That's actually pretty good, right?
Though it's not really suited for a realistic name.
(The meaning of Soseki is a stubborn person or a crank.)

Well, she's cute, and her existence is that of a princess, so how about just "Hime" (Princess)?

Oh man—that's lazy—

※Both are good names, but it's a question of whether the parents' feelings are truly invested in them.

I was sinking into the naming swamp, and I was in a situation where I could have easily asked a supermarket clerk or a passerby, "Excuse me, do you have any good ideas for a girl's name?"
That's how desperate I was.
After all, the child had already been born.

And so, the seventh day after birth arrived. History was made.

Just as I wiped the slate clean of the candidate names I had been agonizing over for months, a completely different name came to me out of the blue.

In a rush of unexpected hope, I scrambled out of the swamp, spun my self-PDCA cycle for naming at full speed, and ran every personal check I could think of. The path forward was incredibly clear, and success was certain. (Success in what, exactly?)

I want to decide on this...!!
There's no, no time left!!!!

I pushed the hopeful candidate name hard to my husband via LINE.
The few minutes I spent waiting for his reply felt like an eternity.

Husband: "I guess this is better than the others. The downside is that the characters don't appear in search suggestions."

Ugh... how calm can you be!

"Then it's decided!!"

I insisted, figuring that search algorithms would be updated in ten years anyway, and so the name was successfully decided.

Yay!!

Although there was some time lost to the PDCA cycle and waiting for his reply after my push, the time from the flash of inspiration to my own internal decision was truly only a few seconds. I never imagined I would decide on a name in seconds. But it felt so right, and even now, the whole family loves that name.

Even today, as I call my daughter's name, I remember the tumultuous months hidden behind those few seconds. Behind those months lie the thirty-some years that have shaped my husband's and my values.

Truly, the act of naming is such a lovely and weighty task.

Every family has their own process and feelings, but all names are truly the best!!

I want to cherish my own name, and everyone else's, too.